←→Over-Planning: A Bad Idea

Posted Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 · Permalink

Map of Over-planning“I’m going to Asia for three weeks. I’ll be going through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China! Cool, huh?” Smile, nod, but please, know better. This was the last point I made in Monday’s entry, but I think it’s really important and so deserves a post by itself.

Over-planning defeats the purpose of traveling at all, or at least the most important kind of travel: experience travel. Taking your time when traveling is important for your understanding of a city or country. Everyone has their own personal pace, meaning some can get the same out of a trip going faster than others. Find your pace. Go at it, not at the pace your guidebook makes you believe you should have. Relax and enjoy your trip.

There are also other benefits to taking your time. One of them is financial. You can last a lot longer when you’re doing things slowly. Staying in a city and seeing one thing in the morning and one in the afternoon is usually a good rule of thumb. But what you might also notice is that many of the best things to do are free (or very cheap).

Finally, one of the general side-effects to over-planning is the added stress that is brings. Keeping a tight schedule in foreign places is a Bad Idea. Why else would you travel other than to relax and learn? You learn more when you do less, I promise.

Filed under Travel Tips.

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  • 1ianmack // February 21st, 2007 at 11:45 pm

    Absolutely agree with you. On my trip to Southeast Asia last spring, my girlfriend and I had 2 months and made plans to see Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

    Turns out we BARELY had enough time for the first three, but were thankful we slowed our pace so as to actually enjoy where we were - instead of lusting after what was coming up.

  • 2Timen // February 23rd, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    Hey Ian,

    A really good example. I have one of my own: 10 weeks in SE Asia but ended up only spending 6 days in Thailand. We had meant to spend two weeks there. Too bad…

    Thanks for the comment.

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